After the folks settled down from the evening commute Dave Cook brought things together at seven PM.
A good crowd showed up for the get together. (Editor’s note: Wow, look at that tree!)
Paul Vaughn’s clinic presentation material models.
The first meeting of the recently split-off Eastside Get Together South Clinic (NMRA, PNR Region, 4th Division) is now officially the Burien Clinic. It all came together at the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive facility in Burien, Washington on 26 January, 2017 at 6:30 PM with Russ Segner presiding.
Update: Here is a link provided by John Prentice from “Seattle Refined” with video and a picture gallery: http://seattlerefined.com/lifestyle/we-took-a-ride-on-a-tiny-train-and-loved-it-all-aboard
This Thursday, February 2, at 3 PM, KOMO TV, Channel 4, will broadcast a segment on local model railroading. The broadcast will feature the recent train shows as well as a segment of video taken of my layout, “The Coal Creek Lumber Co”. This is part of the “Seattle Refined” community show, in case you want to set your DVR.
Al Lowe, Fred Hamilton, and Dave Woodrell joined me in an operating session on my layout. The session lasted over an hour. No derailments or collisions. It was a lot of fun and I hope many of you can see it.
Update, Feb 23, 2017:
Well known vendor and modeler Bob Rudge passed away January 25th and his graveside service was held February 7th at the Tahoma National Cemetery honoring fallen service men and women. Bob had reserved a spot at the UNW Monroe Show this weekend (Feb 25-26) and his wife Emma and family members have decided to keep his commitment and run the booth. Bob was a member of the Boeing Employees Model Railroad Club. If you are attending the UNW model train show, please visit Bob’s tables and give condolences to the family. The pictures below show wife Emma receiving the American Flag and Bob’s Urn.
The first 4th Division Make-and-Take (MaT) clinic will be constructing a truss-rod flat car in wood. We will offer a choice of three scales for the project: O, HO and N. The clinic will provide the raw materials (wood, plastic parts, and metal for rods) as well as appropriate detail parts. The clinic will not provide trucks or couplers. The intent of the clinic is to address scratch building techniques and procedures, not to create a car that will be featured on your layout (if it does fit into your era and home road you get additional benefit from the clinic).
You will need to provide basic hand tools to complete the project and we will provide a list of recommended tools to those who intend to participate. Attendees will be required to measure, cut, fit, and glue up the pieces needed to complete the car. The clinic will have on hand several miter boxes and razor saws, a couple of electric model chop saws, and a variety of glues and adhesives that participants may desire to try out. The clinic will have a nominal cost for materials and we are targeting between $10 and $15. We will have a supply of additional materials on hand in the event of an “oops”.
The date for the clinic is March 4th, and the clinic will start at 9 AM with an anticipated 4-5 hours run time. The clinic will be in a Tacoma location and we will have room for up to 20 participants. The scheduled clinicians are Di Voss and me (Jack Hamilton), with others possible.
Please let me know if you intend to participate, which date(s) work for you and which scale you would like to work in. Reply to gradiver@wavecable.com. I will e-mail you the specific location of the clinic, along with other necessary details.
This is a fulfillment of the intent of the 4th Division to initiate a periodic (and traveling) MaT clinic series outside of our normally scheduled local clinics. We are now ready to move forward with the first of what we hope will be a continuing series of opportunities for our members to gain knowledge and either learn or polish skills.
Important note regarding meeting arrangements. For the months of February, March, and April we will be meeting downstairs in the church Fellowship Hall, not upstairs where we have been. That space is being used to temporarily house a tax service. However, the church hosts community dinners in the Fellowship Hall on the evenings we meet. Those dinners end at 7:00, so their clean-up will overlap our set-up. Therefore, we may encounter some situations where we need to be flexible.
The next Seattle-North clinic is Thursday, February 2, 2017. The agenda includes a “surprise” video which is supposed to build on the theme of our last meeting, the “Rocky Mountain Express”. If time permits, we will also do another installment of our fallen flags mini-clinics and/or start a discussion of creating layout backgrounds.
This is the first issue of a monthly article I will be publishing about the activities inside our 4th Division. I hope you enjoy it.
We have just completed the Pacific Science Center Model Train Show. Before that, many participated in the Christmas show at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, The Great American Train Show and last weekend the World’s Greatest Hobby Show in Puyallup. We are well into our operating season.
These shows are our major outreach to the public and, in the case of the Pacific Science Center Model Train Show, the source of our annual funding. Last year, we added support for one more modular group and funded a trailer for the OmNi-Rail modular group.
So what’s ahead? The Tacoma Layout Tour, the 4D Spring Meet (which includes our annual Division Meeting), Spokane Falls Express (SFX 2017, the PNR Convention in Spokane), the NMRA Annual Convention (in Orlando, Florida), the National Narrow Gauge Convention (which will be in Denver, Colorado this year) and all our local clinics including the new Burien Clinic at the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archives in Burien. Does that leave any time to model and work on our layouts? Well, from postings in the Grab Iron and on Facebook, many of us are doing a lot. Please keep sharing comments and photos.
When Ted Becker opened the Clinic, we had 33 in attendance including two guests, Chuck Tracey and Ron Gutzmer and first timer, Steve Pickens. Welcome all!
February 9: Bob Stafford, Retired BNSF Trainmaster will speak on Operations in Bellingham
February 25, 26: United North West Club’s Train Show, Monroe – http://www.unwclub.org/unwshow.html
March 9: Hands on Working Session
April 13: Mini-Clinics
May 11: TBD
Mike O’Brien was pleased to note that we have 13 kits in progress as evidenced by their builders bringing their projects and putting them on display. A great start!
A sample of DPM kits in progress
Host Gene Swanson welcomed a full house Thursday night to hear Al Babinsky explain maintenance and lubrication procedures used by The Puget Sound Model Railroad Engineers (PSMRE) to maintain the four trains that run on the eight scale mile “auto loop” at the Washington State History Museum.
The two problems encountered at the PSMRE are gunk on the rolling stock wheels and wear in the locomotives. The “gunk” is a muddy substance caused by the mixing of airborne dust with the automatic transmission fluid used to improve wheel-to-rail electrical continuity. It can be removed mechanically from car wheels and from loco wheels using alcohol on a paper towel, cleaning one truck at a time while the wheels are turning.
Wear in locomotive drive trains is caused by lack of lubrication and foreign materials, mostly carpet fuzz, getting into the loco bearings.
It is with great sadness that have to inform you of the passing of Robert (Bob) Sample. Bob passed away Tuesday, January 10th, at around 8:30 am. I do not have any details on services at this time.
He was a life member of the NMRA and a close friend. He will be greatly missed by all of us that know him.
(From Ed Liesse: According to Shirley, “he was telling jokes and his witty comments up until the end and got to be home where he wanted to be.” She also asked that we pass on the news to others as well. Shirley Sample is the current PNR Vice President and a long-time member and leader in the 5th Division. The 5th Division covers Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho, and Montana.)